The numbers of new academies that will open next term will be a fraction of the numbers that Gove planned. The vast majority of schools will continue to be LA maintained institutions. Likewise with ‘free’ schools – there has been a vast disparity between those ‘expressing an interest’ and those actually putting forward a proposal, and unless the private sector comes in on a large scale then the numbers will remain small.

In the process of his chaotic start, Gove has made enemies. For example, if the academy ‘revolution’ had been successful then more and more schools would have been forced to go down the academy route and eventually LA education departments would have withered away. Clearly, this hasn’t taken place, but it’s left a wary and resentful body of officials in town halls up and down the country, some of whom had been close to resignation. It’s a stand-off; these are people that I see, as for example, providing helpful advice during difficult exclusion decisions, and a host of other functions whereas for Gove, imprisoned by his ideology, they’re still merely hatchet-faced ‘bureaucrats.

More to the point, school governors have been affected. David Cameron endlessly talks up the voluntary sector but his schools secretary has not been helpful to the largest group of volunteers in the country – the 350,000 or so governors. Where I’m a governor, the many hours that we put into BSF have been lost and, what’s worse, the head teacher and senior staff’s valuable time has been wasted. Likewise with the academy initiative; we felt obliged to calculate the possible financial benefits of becoming an academy but the Department of Education’s software for this purpose didn’t work; other schools have managed to tease out figures but they’ve been contradictory. A so-called ‘free school’, claiming to be all things to all people, is aggressively touting for business in the neighbourhood, irritating parents and teachers alike.

On the question of head teachers’ salaries, Gove has changed his mind twice – first there was to be a salary free-for-all in his new academies (and there are some awkward questions about conflicts of interest). Then there was to be a cap, and now he’s been persuaded that the cap could be misinterpreted as a target, so he’s gone back to the free-for-all idea. The legislative framework for the new academies simply wasn’t worked out properly; the National Governors’ Association has attempted to hold the ring over the summer, issuing numerous guidance notes for governors who’ve been attempting to get to grips with the process. Although the NGA is strictly non-party political, one senses an icy contempt behind its pronouncements.

Whether or not all this has harmed Gove’s status within the Tory party is an interesting question – possibly not. Like reincarnated Trotskyites, the Cameroons have a mission to ‘smash the state’ and a few setbacks won’t divert them from their ‘struggle’. It’s a different matter for those outside the Tory inner circle, and Gove’s extremism is pushing the moderate majority back to Labour. A teacher friend amusingly refers to Michael Gove as Keith Joseph’s ‘clone’; in his oddness he increasingly resembles Thatcher’s favourite intellectual, albeit one whose demeanour is smug rather than agonised. By turning himself into a figure of fun, more than anything else, he undermines the government and presents himself as a inaugural gift for Labour’s new leader.